Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners CAN'T PITCH vs New York Yankees.

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Anders and Chris break down another outing where Mariners pitching just can't seem to get the Yankees out.  Logan Evans really struggled, and gets pulled in the 5th inning.  JP Crawford, Jorge Polanco, Randy Arozarena, and Cole Young all homer as the offense shows signs of life, but it isn't enough as the Yanks win the series. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlb Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Well, it's really nice of the Mariners to be the get right series for the New York Yankees as they head straight into the All-Star break, losing what, seven of eight before tonight, or before last night, I should say. And then all of a sudden they can hit everything. Their pitching looks good.

And yeah, it's really nice of the Mariners to kind of do that for them. I guess they might be on the payroll some sort, you know. Yeah, very hospitable. By the way, when you said nice, I assumed you were talking about the six to nine score. I'm proud of you for that, and that's not the reference that you're making. Nice. Anyways, this is Anderson Hurst. That's Christopher Crawford.

We are the host of your Locked-on Mariners Postcast. We go live right after every single Mariner baseball game to break down the game that you guys just saw. And we're going to talk about how bad this pitching is right now. I'm going to ask you guys in the chat, and I'm going to ask you, Christopher, Crawford, what you're more concerned about. Is it the offense or is it the pitching? I have a pretty firm answer on that one for me.

We're going to do unsung hero or villain, whichever one you want to do. And we're going to talk about this team being all of a sudden can't really be a run prevention team, which is kind of what this, you know, roster was built on. So that's going to, I'm going to check your worry meter on that one. But first, let's get your original thoughts on the Mariners losing this one, 9 to 6 and it officially dropped the series of the 8th. So I'm going to take you back to, I believe it was July 11th, 24 when I was asked to host for a week on KJR,

and we did a whole week of talking about. trade speculation stuff, right? Talking about who the Mariners could get. And the big conversation was about jazz chisholm and whether or not jazz chisholm would be a good fit for the Seattle. I said yes, if I remember correctly. And some troglodyte who still comes on that channel sometimes said that he was like the ultimate clubhouse cancer and like he was this

real big terrible thing. I don't want to be near our players. Yeah, I think jazz chisdust. it might have helped the Seattle Mariners, folks. And, you know, this is a game where there's some really cool stuff. It's great to see the extra base hits. It's nice to see the offense show up. It's also a game where you see that, boy, the fifth starter could be an issue.

It really could be an issue because, sure, having those four that I have a ton of confidence in, even with Logan Gilbert, like, you know, wetting the bed, the STB, like I brought up yesterday, after the rain delay though, right? Like before that, he was pitching like an ace. I have lots of confidence in those guys. I have no confidence in the fifth starter right now. And we'll talk about it. In fact, maybe we can just start talking about it right now.

Yeah, let's start with the start. Go ahead, Logan Evans. So Logan Evans was awful. Absolutely atrocious tonight. And I brought this up on Milei. I brought this up on social media. I kind of meant to bring it up yesterday and just didn't have time. why in the world with an extra day of rest

is Logan Evans starting against the New York Yankees before the All-Star break. You could have easily moved Wu up. Yeah. Wu and Castillo could have pitched in the series on regular rest. And if either of those guys gets beat, you just tip the cap and you say, okay, they got our best.

starting that guy in the middle game of the series makes no sense to me it's a failure and process and oh boy oh boy is it a failure to result 14 balls hard hit off of Logan Evans in four and two so for every out there is a hard hit baseball that is not a good ratio folks and there were some hard hits that were caught of course radio rosarina made a pretty nice play boy boy Oh, boy. I just, I know people hate Emerson Hancock. I know people hate Emerson Hancock because I do a lot of social media and I do a lot of, I am clinically online for my job and when I'm offline. Clinically online. It sounds like a sickness. Yeah, it really is. It really, truly is mentally for sure. But like, if this is the guy you want, this is your king. Logan Evans is the guy that you really want starting every fifth day for you. right now. Boy, oh boy, do they need a healthy Bryce Miller? Do they need a healthy Bryce Miller to

and if you're not going to get the healthy Bryce Miller, then you probably need to make a move. You probably need to address this because look at Evans ain't it. You go take a look at the savant page. He has been unbelievably lucky to put up the numbers that he has. Unbelievably lucky. Well, I didn't get any luck yesterday. And honestly, it could have been so much worse. Nine hits and six runs doesn't begin to describe how crappy Logan Evans was today. It was, it was bad and it should have been avoided. You know, when they say this could have been an email, this game could have been an email to Dan Wilson saying, let's go ahead and start Brian Wu and Luis Castillo instead. Yeah, I just, I don't know, I'm going to get in a whole deeper conversation here that I don't

really want to get into, but he kind of represents a throwback pitcher, the guy who doesn't have a ton of, you know, stuff. The kitchen sink pitcher. Yes. The guy who throws a lot of pitches doesn't beat himself with self-inflicted damage. But in today's modern game and playing in a stadium like Yankee Stadium where, you know, the ball can go pretty far and where you're facing a couple of edge rushers in the middle of the lineup and tops of having guys that are talented like Jazz Chisholm, it's just not a good idea. It is just, it is a failure in process and it's a failure and result. Yeah, and like this would be the guy that, you know, that John Smolts's of the world

would be pumping up as like, oh, he's the pitcher. There's very fewer pitchers in today's game. I mean, we heard the Mariner broadcast talk about it a little bit today too, like talking about how let's say like, oh, he's just, he's crafty, he pounds the strikes. No, he's just, that means he's not good enough. It's just not. It could Logan Evans develop into a solid back-end starter someday? I think so. I think there's a chance of him doing that. And we've seen good starts from him. We've seen good starts from Hancock. Neither one is good enough to justify if you are a playoff contending team starting every fifth day.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm totally with you there. Just not good enough into pitching and specifically Logan Evans. But even after that, Vargas wasn't great either. Vargas was awful. And I wanted to bring this up real quick. Just so we can get a move on to some other stuff.

but like Vargas and Bizarro need to change roles. Yeah, I agree. There needs to be more Bizarro and high leverage stuff. And maybe that's one of the reasons Vargas is pitching in that situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know. But today was a really good example of that. He just doesn't miss enough bats.

It's great that he's improved his command. Like, improved his command is an understatement, right? And it's still not great. It's still not great. And control is really what improved. And I've talked about it, like, 8,000 times on this thing. But Bizarro has to be the guy who's used in those situations over Vargas.

And Bizarro needs to be that third right-hander. Gabe Spire is probably your third reliever at this point behind Russian Munoz. But then Bizarro needs to be that guy if you're facing a bunch of righties. I'm trusting him a heck of a lot more. Heck of a lot more. Some people bring it up that Julio misplayed that ball, by the way. That ball was peed on. It was a kind of 570.

It was an air. Don't get me wrong. I'm just telling you right now. If it hits your glove in the air, it's an air. But like it wasn't a case of, oh, he would have gotten out of the inning if Julio makes that play. No, he just gives up four instead of five or whatever the heck it was. Three instead of two.

It's actually what it was, not being hyperbolic. It wasn't defense behind him. Vargas is not a great pitcher. He's just not a great pitcher. And we are seeing that some fortune is going the other way. Same thing for Logan Evans. Yeah, and we're not excusing the error for Julio. Oh, absolutely not.

It's been like a calling card of his. At least we can lean on his defense sort of thing. Not tonight, unfortunately. No, just reacted in one game we just watched. Exactly. And honestly, I've seen a little bit of this last night as well. I think it has something to do with the rain. Maybe they catch the, the, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Okay, so. Yeah, by the way, I wasn't calling you out. A couple of people brought it up. So I was just, I'm never picking on you, Jolly Badger. We go back too far. Not you, Jolly Badger. Maybe others. Yeah.

And it's just, this is why I wanted to have this conversation. This is why I labeled the video as run prevention question mark. Because you score six runs. You hit four home runs. That should be enough to win a game. That should be enough. Sorry. Sorry.

Hold on. It's almost like we're doing a daily recap and recapping the thing that we just saw Anthony Brown. Holy crap on a cracker. Yes. Just to case anyone doesn't understand, we break down the game that you just watched. Oh, my God.

Tonight. What you just watched tonight, yes. Breathe. I love you, Anthony. I love you. I love you. Yeah. So it's just you score six runs.

You hit four home runs. By the way, good for Cole Young. Good for Cole Young. And I understand it's a short porch, yada, yada, yada, yada. Probably not a home run in the many other ballpark. I don't care. I do not care. There's been a couple others where he hits at a foot below T-Mobile parks fences

that are out in every other part, right? So I don't care. I think he is, he has the projected path for me that's just someone who's slowly figuring it out at this level. He's kind of going through his lumps. Obviously, he's not hitting the ground running by. any stretch of the imagination. But him just slowly figuring out this level, and they put it on the broadcast.

He's one of the youngest players in MLB right now. I think the fourth youngest, yeah, after, what was it, Jackson Shurio, Jackson Holiday, and was it Roman Anthony? Yeah. Yeah. Or the other three youngest. So him being a 21-year-old and just at least holding his own on both sides of the ball, I think is a really positive sign.

Yeah, he's totally capable of making that play. Like, that's what we're saying. We're not excusing the error at all. It was bad. He needs to make that catch. And the Mariners probably don't lose because of it, but it at least changes the game because it's a closer game, closer towards the end of the game.

And to be honest, like, I'm still looking at the pitching as the bigger issue here. Let's get into that conversation. Chat, who do you guys think or what do you guys think is a bigger issue right now with the Seattle Mariners as we approach the training dead. line for 2025 do you think if you were to only be able to upgrade one would it be the pitching or the offense let's get into that after we give some love to open phone does that sound good chris proffer sounds wonderful if you're running a business you know that every missed call is money left on the table think about the last time you've had a service emergency like a burst pipe

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Fandul makes it feel like you're part of the action. I'm betting over on the runs. Anytime Logan Evans pitch. that's for sure. If you're new to Fandul, new customers can bet to $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins, open the Fandul app today, or visit Fandual.com to get started. All right, I posed a question before we went to the sponsors for today's show. I'm going to ask you Chris Crawford first and then at the chat, it can give you a little bit of time to respond as well. What's the bigger issue right now? Is it the pitching or is it the offense? What do you

think. I still think it's the offense. And, you know, even though I just said we're a daily recap thing, I don't want to forget how good this pitching was in that homestand, right? Like, it was really good. Now, against bad offenses, you've given up 19 runs over these last two games. So it's far, it's obvious that the pitching isn't perfect, right? I will still say that the floor of this offense is a bigger concern for me, in part because I do believe it'll be easier to trade for a fifth starter type if you have to do that. So I guess what I would say is it's more pressing to look for more floor and ceiling for the offense, whereas you only have to look for floor for pitching, right? Like, you're not looking for, you're not giving up a bunch of your assets. And again, I hate calling

people assets. But you know what I mean? You're not giving up your top prospects for a mid-rotation starter. You're moving guys in the bottom of your system for that fifth starter. Just a simple solution fix the Andrew Hini's of the world that won't cost you a ton that increased the floor there but you still the offense is still the bigger issue for me where there are just too many games where like they score three yesterday that's maybe the most misleading three of all times they get they were down 10 nothing Julio it's a double big dumper homer it was great to see by the way big dumper was awful today um it's um yeah yeah exactly it's still to me the offense But if you argued that the pitching needs upgrades, you're not wrong, not even close.

You still need another left-handed reliever and you still need a fifth starter. Unless you are that confident that Bryce Miller is coming back. And nothing Bryce Miller has shown you in 2025 suggests that's happening. Yeah. So to me, that's where I'll start. I will go the other way. I'll say pitching because number one, we've talked about it many times. This roster is built on pitching.

you play in the one of the two pitchiest pitcher-friendliest ballparks, and that's what your team is built on, right? So I think it all starts with the start. That's why we start with that every single night. And I think the Mariners kind of view it the same way. If you don't have good starting pitching, you're not going to be in very many games. Now, I'm not saying that the pitching is worse than the offense.

That is not what I'm saying at all. But I'm saying it's more important to get five good starters in your rotation than it is to have nine above average bats in your lineup. And there's holes in both places. And the other thing is what you said about Bryce Miller. It's the caveat that I don't believe we're going to get at least the version of Bryce Miller we've been used to seeing. Maybe he becomes back healthy, but I just don't know if we're going to get the, 24, Bryce Miller from the second half this year at all without him going through some sort of surgery. So if that is the case, if we don't get that version of Bryce Miller, I think pitching is

more of a pressing need, especially when you add in the need for another bullpen arm, because we saw it again today. Yeah. Just not good enough. And here's what I'll say too. I hope the easy answer here would be getting Bryce Miller back as soon as possible and seeing what you can give you over a couple of starts, but I also hope they don't brush Bryce Miller back because it's such an important part of your long-term plan. Let us not forget that Bryce Miller was as good, if not better than any Seattle Mariner starter over the second half of 2024. He was the best. He was the best of all of them. He was disgusting and absolutely seemed like this was going to be his breakout year, but unfortunately, injuries, I don't think it's a question of stuff. Injuries have played a factor.

Like it's affected his command and he just hasn't had as much snap on. the breaking ball and he just hasn't located the fastball. And he hasn't thrown the fastball as hard as he has in the past as well. Like 94 right now. Yeah. 9, 93, 94, which you can get away with because of some spin stuff, but it's not Brian Wu spin, right? Like, it's not quite the same level to that. Yeah, there's no question. It'd be great to see Brian, Bryce Miller. I always want to call him Bryce Miller. I do too. I do too. It turns out so naturally to me. Because you put them both together because they both came up at the same time, exactly. Yeah, and I've called him, I've called him Brian Woodh a thousand times as well. So it's just changed one of their names to Mogadjan Farsanegger, Farsinogalakar Ricky.

That's a real name. Yeah, but you're not wrong. You have to take a look at what you can do to improve this staff. But I still, like, I go back to the fact that they've scored outside of today off of a mediocre starter. I wasn't terribly impressed. Did you. So like, yeah, exactly. In a really easy place to hit too. So I think it's both. I think it's both. But if I had to get one major upgrade,

it would still be for this offense. That's, and that's completely fair. I think you could look at it either way and just kind of depending on what you prefer to see going forward. All right. Who's your unsung hero slash villain for today? Okay. This is a tough one. I thought about unsung. You know what? I'll do it.

Unsung hero today. I'll go with my son. I'll go with J.P. Crawford. It was great to see him drive a baseball. And also great to see him draw a walk. The walks have not been plentiful for J.P. Crawford as of late. Now, some of that has to do with the fact that they've challenged him more, you know, because of a lack of pop. But it was nice to see him drive that ball into that jet stream and draw a free pass as well. I was really annoyed that we didn't see more patience at the plate today. because that's Schlittler's biggest issue is that he walks a ton of dudes. Go take a look at the minor league. We're not swearing YouTube. I promise we're not swearing. Slittler. We're playing shinnie hockey and we're watching Schlittler pitch. It's, uh, I'll go with JP.

I'll go on the positive. I'm proud of my son for hitting the home run. I would say unsung villain is Julio Rodriguez, but we've already talked about it. So he's kind of a sung villain at this point. Good to see him get the double. Yeah. We straight games with an extra base hit real quick. That's really nice to see.

If that's a trend going up, I will take the maybe coming back down to Earth defensively, if that's what's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. We're just playing a devil's advocate here. But the error plus the three at-bats besides the double were a lot to be desired. I'll put it that way. But like I said, he's a sung villain at this point. I think we've talked about that enough.

I'm going to go another unsung hero. We talked about Cole Young. I'm going to keep going with Randy, man. My guy, my guy, Randy, another great opposite field home run. He seems like he is able to handle every pitch now. He's getting early enough on the fastballs up to where he can pull it into the left field grass. He doesn't really pull out of home runs, but he's lining those fastballs, and then he's waiting on the breaking ball away, and he's hitting it hard the other way.

His at-bats just looks so good right now. I, and I've seen this a lot, we've already mentioned this. I would probably flop him and Julio in the lineup as of right now. Absolutely. Long term, but like as of right now, like I'd rather have Randy in the two-hole than Julio. Yeah, I would totally agree with that.

I'm surprised they haven't made that move to be completely honest with you. But, you know, stubborn organization. Stubborn organization, to be sure. but I am encouraged that I will play the positive card and say beggars can't be choosers and seeing extra base hits from Julio is wonderful because we just didn't see them in June at all and I have a lot of type of extra base hits too it's not like going the other way every single he's pulling fly balls again with hard exit velocity one today wasn't like clobbered but it was like 87 miles per hour down the line I'm not complaining about that whatsoever and I think the

defense might still be okay for Hulia. It's fine for some reason. But, you know, I could go unsung villain with Cal Raleigh, too. He really struggled today. The dude's phenomenal. He's one of the best player in all of the sport. But we are a daily recap, and it was not good today. Yes, the Mariners Losing Series dropped this one, six to nine.

Nice. That's the only reason I read it in that order. I got in trouble. saying the score in opposite order before. So I'm going to say that the right way this time. The Mayors lose this one, nine to six. As they drop the series of the Yankees, they can salvage the series tomorrow with a win.

And Brian Wu on the mound. Right after he gets the All-Star nod, and anyone who hasn't checked out, both the announcement from Dan Wilson to the players that are going on the All-Star game and when Brian Wu calls his parents, that's what the game's all about, man. Absolutely.

So please go check it out. you need to feel better at the Mariners because that helps a lot. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Any last words, Chris Crawford? If you want to feel better about something to go rewatch Cole Young's reaction in the dugout after the Homer. Like, as cool, those are the cool moments. That's what makes baseball such a phenomenal sport.

Go watch Cole Young's smile in that dugout. Yeah. And he was rounding the bases. You could tell he's trying to hold off a smile from his face. It's so awesome. And, you know, as frustrating as a loss like this is, I won't remember this loss. I'll remember Cole Young's Homer, and that's one of the cool things about this sport.

Totally agree. All right, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Another 410 Pacific time, I should say. 410 Pacific Time start. Brian Will on the mound. I didn't even look what the Yankees have, but just go in. Just go get one from this series. Mike Lucina somehow.

Congratulations. Great, great. Good job, Mike Messina. All right, you're back at the age of 60. Okay, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Please like the video. check out the podcast later if you miss any of today show.